If Monday evening marked Christopher Eubanks’ breakthrough, Tuesday evening took it to the next level.
“Ain’t no crying,” Eubanks said as he walked into the media mixed zone inside Hard Rock Stadium with a big smile on his face.
The American had just battled past Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in a rain-delayed two hours and 11 minutes to reach the quarter-finals of the Miami Open presented by Itau.
“It feels good, it feels good. Just like yesterday felt good, this feels great,” Eubanks said. “Just something about all of the delays and the stopping, the starting, the warming up and cooling down and warming up, it makes a match like this even sweeter and to think it was for my first Masters 1000 quarter-final is really, really special. It feels great, it feels good right now.”
[BREAK POINT]
After clawing past Gregoire Barrere in the third round, Eubanks was overcome by a flood of emotions. Not only had he rallied from 2/6 down in the second-set tie-break, but the match put him in position to crack the Top 100 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time.
“I think last night was just so many different emotions just because of being down in the breaker, my mind kind of already floated to the idea of a third set, so to be able to come back and win it, it was a lot,” Eubanks said. “It was a lot, saving five set points and to be able to come back, it was more just kind of shock that I’d actually won the match and then to find out afterwards that match put me in the Top 100, that’s when the emotion came out.”
After the emotional night, Eubanks regrouped to oust veteran Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, one of the trickiest players on the ATP Tour. He is up to No. 85 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.
“Today feels a little bit more like, ‘Hey, I’m here. Trust it,’” Eubanks said. “I’m playing well and let’s just see how long we can keep this thing going.”
Eubanks has received an outpouring of support from colleagues in the tennis world as well as plenty of people outside of it. Jamie Foxx congratulated him on social media Monday evening and NFL legend Chad Johnson was in the stands on Tuesday to support him.
Dear followers please congratulate my guy @chris_eubanks96 on yet another win tonight at the Miami Open, also inform him on the importance of post game McDonald’s to help recovery 🎾
— Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) March 29, 2023
“It’s amazing man. It’s really, really cool. I’ve known Foxx for two, three years now and he’s become a really, really close friend, someone I can call if I just want to kind of talk through life a little bit,” Eubanks said. “Chad and I actually connected for the first time two or three weeks ago. He posted a video playing tennis and I think we had DM’d in the past and when he posted the video I commented saying, ‘Hey man that looks pretty good.’ He commented back saying, ‘I would love to get on the court with you,’ so I immediately shot him a DM I said, ‘Hey I’m going to be down in Miami for the Miami Open if you want to come out I can see about getting you a credential.’
“We were able to do that and he’s such an avid sports fan. He loves following tennis. He was super excited to be able to meet Carlitos today, he got to meet Tommy the other day. So he’s an all-around sports junkie. It was really cool for him to be able to come out. He stuck through one or two rain delays… It’s been really cool to see the outpouring of support. DJ D-Nice is another person who reached out and I got to meet. It’s been really, really cool.”
Eubanks’ run is not over yet. The 26-year-old will play red-hot Daniil Medvedev for a spot in the semi-finals.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/0FOCyo6
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